Emma Quayle

Emma Quayle joined The Age as a cadet journalist in 1999 and has been covering football since 2001. She has won awards from the Australian Football Media Association and AFL Players Association for her feature writing, and specialised for many years in covering junior football and the AFL draft. Emma's two books - The Draft and Nine Lives (the story of former Essendon wingman Adam Ramanauskas' battle with cancer) - were published in 2008 and 2010.

Kobe Mutch grew up playing in the same junior teams as Isaac Cumming and Lachlan Tiziani, who were drafted like he was two weeks ago. Their North Broken Hill side used to win by a pile of points every weekend, so his dad would send him out to play with something specific to work on. "One week he said, only kick with your left foot,' he said. "And the next week, it was my right."